Annapurna Circuit, Nepal: Part II

For a few hours, a trail of headlights illuminated the way up the winding slope as trekkers from all over the world willingly congregated in this part of Nepal to walk in the darkness and freezing cold to go and see a lake.

By Shri & Firuza

Day 7: Trek from Khangsar to Tilicho Base Camp (Rise of the Mountain Warrior)

Start point: Khangsar (3756m)

End point: Tilicho Base Camp (4160m)

Time Hiking: 4hrs 32 mins hiking (4hrs 32mins in the morning)

By the next morning, the snowfall had made it down to our level. Or rather, we had made it up to the snowline. Because the tea house staff had stayed up late the previous night (Nepalese trekkers had arrived quite late in the dark the previous night), breakfast was slightly delayed but we still managed to set off at around 8am.

The snow had settled and was at this point, beautifully nestled around the bushes and shrubbery that had managed to grow this high up. We stopped for a quick water break part way through the trek and Firuza decided to go to the toilet leaving Shri and Deepak unattended. They glanced at each other, both holding a hiking pole each. They looked away. Then shot another glance at one another. The temptation proved too much.

Both leapt to their feet, brandishing the poles like unsheathed swords. The battle had begun. Shri parried Deepak’s swipe with ease but then Deepak jabbed again. And suddenly, he was moving rhythmically, spinning and manoeuvring the weapon as if he had been born for this.

Shri stepped to the side, taking out a phone to record Deepak who had entered some sort of frenzy with the pole. He was in a different mode now. A Mountain Warrior Mode. And then this happened:

By the time Firuza returned Deepak handed her back the pole and pretended like nothing had happened, despite Shri’s snickering (Firuza discovered the video when we reached the next camp). We travelled through a rock slide area (which unfortunately isn’t a place where they have a giant slide made out of rock) where we had to be extremely careful. Deepak made us limit our conversation in this region as he constantly scanned the area above us, looking for any signs of rock movement. We also had to wear our woolly beanie hats for this portion for head protection and not take so many photos so as to reduce the time we spent there.

Without the usual conversation and for fear of being swept up (or rather ‘down) in a rock slide, we ended up making it all the way to Tilicho Base Camp (we stayed at the Moon Lake Hotel) in just over 4 hours – at least half an hour less than had been planned.

So, this was the highest camp we’d been to so far on this trip and we noted the following features

From this level upwards, it’s squatting toilets all the way
The water from the tap in the bathroom (is it really a bathroom if there’s no bath. We referred to these as the squat rooms from this point) was on and off. Sometimes it ran and sometimes nothing came out
Power cuts were frequent here so you could be munching your dinner in the dark if you didn’t wolf it down quickly enough (this is why it’s advisable to take headlamps which we made good use of, as well as extra batteries for them)!

We had somewhat of a relaxing afternoon, walking around the camp taking photos and scouting out our route for the next day’s ascent. Even in the afternoon, it was freezing so down jackets were a must. Shri also got his first taste of momos at lunch, a dish which he continued eating thereafter. We went to bed at 7pm that night in preparation for our early ascent to Tilicho lake the next morning. The climb to Tilicho Lake is considered akin to a summit day, and with the route taking us above 5000m, it was one we had to be well prepared for.

Day 8 Part 1: Trek from Tilicho Base Camp to Tilicho Lake (The Tortoise & The Hare)

Start point: Tilicho Base Camp (4160m)

End point: Tilicho Lake (4919m)

Time Hiking: 3hrs 28mins hiking in the morning

This was to be a day of 8 hours+ of hiking, but we’ve decided to split it into 2 parts, so here goes the first half of the day. We awoke to the freezing cold at 3:30am and went for breakfast at 4am which had been pre-ordered the previous night. Again, going back to cost and reward: the reward was the majesty of the night sky and the allure of the stars from above which no photo can truly do justice to. The cost was being cold as **** and being forced to eat at such an ungodly hour.

We left for the hike at 4.45am wearing practically everything. That’s right, we each wore our: down jackets, thermals (legs and torso), waterproof trousers, beanie hats, 2 neck buffs, two pairs of gloves (yes, each!) and headlamps. As we were coming back down to Tilicho Base Camp for lunch, we left our duffel bags in the room and Saila accompanied us for fun without carrying anything for once. Until Firuza gave him her day pack…

It took about 15 minutes for our hands to warm up even under all those layers of gloves. For a few hours, a trail of headlights illuminated the way up the winding slope as trekkers from all over the world willingly congregated in this part of Nepal to walk in the darkness and freezing cold to go and see a lake.

Now Tilicho lake isn’t just any lake. As the Nepalese will tell you, it’s one of the highest lakes of its size in the world. It is also the location of one of the highest ever altitude scuba dives. But the reason we decided to include it on our trek (this was customized to our preference, but wasn’t an actual or standard part of the Annapurna treks. You need to request it) was purely to experience the views which we heard were some of the best in all of Nepal.

Unfortunately, not long into the hike Saila was having stomach problems (you see it’s not just Shri who suffers on the high mountains!) and Deepak ended up sending him back to get some rest (and make use of the toilet) to be on the safe side. As dawn broke, Saila descended the mountain as we continued our ascent.

As the sun crept over the hills, the snow of the mountain peaks transformed from white to gold and captured the eyes and hearts of every trekker present. Except for one. A tall British man powered past us as the sun stretched higher into the sky. No ‘Good morning’ or ‘Hello’ from him. His face was steeped in deep concentration as he ploughed forth, one pole after another. This was a man on a mission! To do what, we still don’t know…

Perhaps 20 minutes later we passed the same man who was now sitting down on a rock, looking rather tired and breathing somewhat heavily. As we drew closer, he looked up, smiling sheepishly and greeted us with a ‘Good morning.’ Funny how perspective changes when one is out of breath!

This was not new to us on this trip. Deepak had been advising us the whole way that it was best to go at a comfortable pace and that rushing would only result in breathlessness at this altitude. We of course had experience being out of breath at the camps from things as simple as tying our laces or going to the toilet, so we knew to heed his words. Anyway, this poor Brit ended up falling quite a distance behind us in the end after his early exertion. This made us very smug indeed. Especially Firuza who talked about him pretty much all the way up to the summit and lake!

We won’t go on too much about the lake as it’s the photos you really need to see. Firuza found the actual views of the peaks along the route to the lake the most inspiring part of that trek whereas Shri preferred the actual lake with the backdrop of the Himalayas. Either way, we highly recommend going to Nepal just to see Tilicho Lake. Although we do not recommend scuba diving in it unless you are mad or Russian (as were those who set a record).

Luckily, Deepak provided us with crampons once we hit the snow and ice towards the top which was extremely helpful on the way down. We were also lucky enough to spot some snow leopard paw prints as we descended although we couldn’t see the actual leopard amidst the camouflage of the snow (if it was anywhere near us).

On another note, this was the day that the sunglasses we bought finally came in real handy. They were category 4 sunglasses with extra flaps on the side to block out the sun. This was extremely helpful when up in the snow-capped peaks as the sunlight reflecting off the white snow was blinding and you don’t want to walk around up there with closed eyes!

Anyway, here are the pics!

Day 8 Part 2: Trek from Tilicho Lake to Shree Kharka (The Whispering Walls)

Start point: Tilicho Lake (4919m)

End point: Shree Kharka (4080m)

Time Hiking: 4hrs 28mins hiking (2hrs hiking in the morning and 2hrs 28mins hiking in the afternoon)

Getting back down was not easy and we were grateful for the crampons which really helped in the end. By the time we got back to Tilicho Base Camp it was still before midday and we had time to eat some lunch and pack everything up.

After lunch we shot off for Shree Kharka, passing the exact same route we took to get to Tilicho Base Camp (no more trudging through snow and ice, back to trekking on rocky terrain again). That meant another quest past the rock slide area which meant hats on again and no talking, much to Firuza’s disappointment (for those who have yet to meet her, she will ask questions from dawn till dusk as Deepak can now attest to).

Saila made it back to the Himalayan Lodge Tea House at Shree Kharka with us, albeit a little slower than usual. However, he struggled to recover during the day and Deepak made the decision that he should go back down to the bottom and that he’d find another porter in the local area to help us finish the trek.

That evening we met a French solo traveller who’d been roaming around the globe for 11 months and whose final destination before returning to France was Nepal and this trek. We got talking, comparing our travels and quizzing her on where she’d been. Firuza explained to her that she normally gets mistaken for a local wherever we go, which is when Deepak cut in to say that actually, a lot of other guides and porters had asked if she was Nepalese along the way. This made her day!

We played some cards with our new friend and Deepak while the power flickered on and off, which resulted in an unintentional candle lit dinner for the 4 of us. Shri and Firuza went for the Dhal Bhat which was a regular dinner for us. We also found out from Deepak that he’d basically eaten Dhal Bhat every day of the trek for both lunch and dinner! He said it had all the nutrients needed to sustain him for the duration of the trip.

And then without warning, he burst into verse:

Dhal Bhat Power

For every hour

No need to shower

Cos it makes me smell like a flower!

Wow! Did Deepak just turn into Tupac? We were very impressed with his lyrical prowess which he accepted without modesty. It’s only when we finally returned to Kathmandu that we realized this rhyme was present on a number of popular T-shirts in tourist shops. But we’ll give him some credit in any case.

We went back to our room in the dark (always take headlamps to dinner with you in the high mountains). We were going to the toilet one last time before bed when Shri heard something in the bathroom. It was the sound of an American woman whose voice was filtering through the not so compact stone walls:

“I do not appreciate when you talk to other people about our sex life.”

Shri finished his business, eyebrows raised and intrigued, but feeling colder the longer he remained outside the sleeping bag. Then Firuza entered the room to do her business and heard the following through the stones:

“You know I’m high maintenance. This is not at all what I expected it to be.”

Now her interest was piqued. She raised her eyebrows at Shri as she came out and we swapped bathroom stories of our experiences with the whispering walls. Based on the highly private nature of the conversation the couple in the adjacent room were having, we decided to shut the bathroom door and give them some much deserved privacy. Of course, that’s what we did…

Day 9: Trek from Shree Kharka to Yak Kharka (A Tale of Two Guides)

Start point: Shree Kharka (4080m)

End point: Yak Kharka (4018m)

Time Hiking: 4hrs 23mins hiking in the morning

The hike up to Yak Kharka was only about 4 and a half hours – piece of cake compared to the day gone. We said goodbye to Saila and gave him a tip (don’t ask us to explain how to decide the tip amount for a small group. There are tonnes of different online sources that quote completely different amounts. In the end we ended up doing some sort of average of them all based on the number of days for the trek. Also it’s customary to give the tip in an envelope if you have one, and to do so with your right hand in as discrete a manner as possible). He was replaced by another porter by the name of Maila – which was easy enough to remember!

Again, this trek was filled with great valley views (as well as suspension bridges to Firuza’s delight). Shri and Deepak managed to keep themselves entertained by attempting a variety of accents that would have offended most nations, although Deepak refused to do a British accent in front of us.

By mid-afternoon we had arrived at the next tea house (Hotel Dream Home) where we found our French friend and a lot of Russians who had found a sensible way to deal with the challenges of altitude and the cold; vodka! We opted to go for the fresh Rose and Jasmine teas instead.

More cards followed that evening. Our new friend was very impressed with Deepak as a guide. She went on to list all the things she’d observed him doing after only 2 nights with us, that her guide had not been doing:

Spending time with us at dinner time
Playing cards
Providing us with pomegranate and apple slices every breakfast or evening before meals were served
Giving us a detailed itinerary every evening so that we knew what the next day had in store for us
Measuring our oxygen levels as we progressed higher
We told her afterwards that he even does accents!

The list could go on. Needless to say, she was not impressed with her guide who by the sound of it ended up drinking with a few porters every night and not always ordering her meals on time. Indeed, Deepak almost seemed to adopt her at this point, including her in the itinerary talk and offering her pomegranate as well.

We don’t know the name of the company her guide was from so we can’t advise against going with them. All we can do is recommend Deepak and Himalayas On Foot as a company. To be fair though, there is perhaps one group her guide would have appealed to. The Russians!

Day 10: Trek from Yak Kharka to Thorong High Camp (The French Toilet)

Start point: Yak Kharka (4018m)

End point: Thorong High Camp (4800m)

Time Hiking: 4hrs 7mins hiking (2hrs 51mins hiking in the morning and 1hr 16mins hiking in the afternoon)

This day was just about going up. Most days were, but this day felt like a day of slogging ourselves up. The day before the big ascent, but without the glory of summiting. The day before reaching our goal, but without the relief of knowing it was over. The air was getting thinner and tiredness came on quicker than anywhere before, especially after the high of reaching Tilicho Lake, and then going back to the grind.

We stopped for lunch at Thorong Phedi Low Camp (4540m), had some Dhal Bhat and then went on our way again after about an hour’s break. Now we were above the tree line once more, just a few sparse bushes keeping us company at this elevation and some majestic views of the mountains. After a slow and steep uphill hike, we finally arrived at Thorong High Camp View Hotel (4800m). High camp, the highest altitude we’d slept at so far, was a little different to everywhere else.

Firstly, the toilet (squatter), which was just that – a squat toilet with no running water (just a bucket full of water which we obviously avoided) was outside in a little hut. Quite a few rooms shared a toilet so you want to make sure you have no stomach problems by the time you reach this elevation. Secondly, the rooms had the poorest insulation (not that the others were much better) compared to the lower camps and this was the coldest camp. Also, it’s a common theory (spread by the guides) which is probably also true, that you don’t sleep as well at high camp. Additionally, there was no power here so once it gets dark that’s it – you either sleep or put your headlamps on.

Anyway, worry aside, we dropped off our things and hiked up to another viewpoint several metres above the camp where blotches of snow were already present to take some photos – clearly we hadn’t hit our quota of hiking hours to satisfy Firuza’s Strava for the day (Strava is an app to record your hikes, runs and other activities).

Then it was time for an early lunch. We had dinner with a number of other trekkers from across the globe which included our French Friend, a Dutch guy, Belgian, Canadian and Indian. Unfortunately, one of the guys had stomach problems and had to keep disappearing. Shri was certainly grateful to have had his issues all out at the lower camps.

Everyone got talking and of course, you can never have such a mix of people together without a bit of patriotic banter. The Belgian talked about being invaded by the French and practically every other European country other than the UK. We wondered if he was happy with us for that, but it turned out he was slightly offended that we hadn’t even tried! But he had his hit back at the French when he explained that the squatter toilets, we had in the high camps were commonly referred to as ‘French Toilets’ all–around Europe due to this being the standard in the south of France during the 70s/80s. You learn something new every trip. Our French Friend was not impressed with this bit of trivia though, and made sure to inform us all that in France, they are referred to as ‘Turkish toilets’. Who knows, maybe every country renames these poor toilets after another nation!

We had a good evening, with spirits high and everyone psyched to be summiting the next day and for the most part, getting to the end of a gruelling trek. Jokes were told, songs were sung (Dhal Bhat Power mainly) and bonds were formed. But then, as the night wore on, we began to quieten down and let our mind wonder. For we knew that we needed to make it through the night without having to get up and go outside in the freezing cold to use the French Toilet. This was everyone’s worst fear in that moment.

We brushed our teeth outside, not wanting to take our toothbrush into the squatter hut, and just spat into the snow. Firuza also tried to take some night sky photos but couldn’t do the reality justice. We went to bed dressed in almost all our clothes for the next day. It was too cold to take clothes off for bed and plus, this way we would save some time getting changed in the morning (getting changed at altitude can take a while). And so, we slept. The next morning, both Firuza and Shri agreed that they had no idea how much, if any sleep they actually got.

Day 11: Trek from Thorong High Camp to Thorong La Pass and then to Muktinath (Dhal Bhat Power)

Start point: Thorong High Camp (4800m)

Highest point: Thorong La Pass (5416m)

End point: Muktinath (3710m)

Time Hiking: 6hrs 15mins hiking (2hrs 45mins hiking up to the summit and 3hrs 30mins hiking down- all in the morning)

This is the moment we’d been waiting for. Well, not this exact moment. It’s unlikely anyone looks forward to waking up fully dressed, bursting to pee and still freezing cold at almost 5000m at 3am. But it was summit day. We could almost taste the victory, feel the finish line.

After breakfast, we set out with our headlights once again and embraced the cold in about 4 layers of clothes. As always, walking in the dark, with no light pollution gave us another stunning pre-dawn ascent, the canopy of dazzling stars evoking the most incredible feeling within us, as well as the disappointment of knowing we wouldn’t be able to truly capture it on camera (not without a tripod and to be fair it was too cold to try even if we’d had one). We had another breath-taking sunrise behind us as we ascended, resulting in Firuza continuously taking off her gloves for another picture but then having her fingers freezing and desperately trying to warm them up again. This process repeated numerous times.

And so, we hiked on. When we eventually reached the top, Maila (our second porter if you remember) was replaced by another porter (our third!) as he didn’t want to go down the way we were going and instead went back to High Camp. We watched as Deepak handed a bunch of bags to this new guy along with a wad of cash. Not shady at all! Then again, if it was drugs, where better to make such an exchange, with no law enforcement around and a bunch of tourists who need your help?

We proceeded to take some photos at the summit point with all the flags when we reached Thorong La Pass. We managed to get a few good photos in before a larger group of older French tourists started asking (or telling more like) us to hurry up. Incidentally, they had also pushed in front of an actual line that people had formed who were waiting to have their photos taken.

Immediately, a group of strapping Dutch guys were on the scene and began to marshal the situation. One of them engaged directly with the Frenchman.

“You pushed in. Can you not see there is a line?”

“We were here first” the Frenchman replied.

“Ha! That is just not true. You have to get into the proper line. Where are you from eh? France?”

“No” replied the Frenchman, a little more timidly now as the Dutchman towered over him.

Shri and Firuza had heard him shouting “Allez, Allez, Allez” to anyone who would listen when he and his group had reached the top. So, we knew where he was from.

“I don’t believe it” the Dutchman continued, shaking his head. “I really don’t believe it.”

Eventually, we finished having our pictures taken and the line kind of sorted itself out. We had some quick snacks (trek bars and energy gels) and then began our descent. Again, Deepak lent us his crampons. Unfortunately for him, it was rather steep and icy on the way down and he ended up falling a couple of times which made us feel somewhat guilty that he’d given them to us so we insisted he at least use our poles. He also managed to get some sun cream in his eyes which stung a bit so it really wasn’t his day (a bit like he first day where he got stung by nettles). Poor Deepak.

As we got closer to the bottom, approaching Muktinath, Deepak told us that we could visit a Hindu/Buddhist temple enroute and that there were 108 water taps (of which we had to touch the water of each one) and a giant Buddha statue in a serene garden. Naturally, we agreed to visit it.

You’ve probably heard enough waffle from us at this point so we’ll leave you with a few photos of our last hiking day, before we took a jeep from Muktinath to Pokhara, where we had our first shower in 6 days. But one last note, before we leave you.

We talked about cost and reward a fair amount in this blog. And having now finished the bulk of the journey, we can safely say that it was well worth it. The rewards justified the costs and any discomfort or pain was just temporary. The memory will live on with us forever.

Epilogue

Ok we lied. One last bit of waffle from us. Promise! Firuza took the opportunity to discuss what we were all most looking forward to eating when we got back home, having being limited with options for the duration of the trek. Naturally, she answered her own question first, telling us how she planned to eat all sorts of dishes ranging from gluten free toast with vegan butter and marmalade to gluten-free and vegan ginger cookies and of course a huge mug of English breakfast tea with almond milk. Shri, meanwhile, in his typical neutral way just said that he’d have whatever and wasn’t bothered, much to Firuza’s annoyance.

So Firuza turned to Deepak. “What are you most looking forward to eating when you get home Deepak?”

Deepak looked at her, his cheeks forming a smile as his mind had clearly settled on an answer.

“Dhal Bhat of course!”